Robert De Niro Says ‘The Irishman’ Will Happen

The Irishman – a movie about a real-life mobster tale that stars Robet De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci – with Martin Scorsese calling the shots from the director’s chair – sounds almost too good to be true. De Niro was previously talking up the possibility that filming could begin this year, but Scorsese’s commitment to making The Wolf of Wall Street and Silence in the near future means there’s little chance of that.

However, that doesn’t mean the project is in serious danger of turning into another dream teamup that never came to fruition – according to De Niro, he and his fellow legendary Hollywood talents are all firmly committed to making the film.

While promoting this month’s Limitless (which he costars in) at a press junket, De Niro had the following to say about The Irishman:

“It’s a movie based on a book called ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’. It’s about a guy [named Frank Sheeran] who is – and I believe the book – says he’s now passed away, but he confessed that he killed [Jimmy] Hoffa and also Joe Gallo over here on Hester Street. And so I’m going to play that character, Joe Pesci’s gonna be in it and Al Pacino is going to be in it and Marty’s going to direct it… I’d never say it if I didn’t really fully have us all, you know, committed.”

Pacino and Pesci began circling what will mark the ninth collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese last fall, but as far as anyone knows they’re not “officially” set to make the film just yet. Then again, when Bobby De Niro says you’re doing his next movie, you’d better listen – even the likes of Pacino and Pesci know that. 😉

Word that De Niro and Scorsese were planning to bring Charles Brandt’s novel “I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran and the Inside Story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the Last Ride of Jimmy Hoffa” to the big screen first popped up around two years ago. It was last spring that speculation and excitement for the project began to heat up again, after De Niro dropped this tidbit about what he and his favorite director have in mind now with The Irishman:

“We have a more ambitious idea, hopefully, to make it a two-part type of film or two films. It’s an idea that came about from [screenwriter] Eric Roth to combine these movies using the footage from ‘Paint Houses’ to do another kind of a [film that is] reminiscent of a kind of ’8 1/2,’ ‘La Dolce Vita,’ [a] certain kind of biographical, semi-biographical type of Hollywood movie — a director and the actor — based on things Marty and I have experienced and kind of overlapping them.”

With its stellar cast and fascinating subject matter, The Irishman is already a must-see for those who consider themselves true cinemaphiles – or anyone who wants to see a potentially electrifying mob drama featuring some true pros in the business. Here’s hoping it actually gets made sooner, rather than later.